Supporting Conservation

YCN Supporting Wildlife Conservation and Local Communities

At Yorkshire Coast Nature we strive to conduct our business ethically, delivering visible gains for nature conservation and local communities through our work.  We believe in delivering nature tourism which benefits our precious environment.

• YCN seek to donate funds to conservation projects linked to our tours/workshops in partnership with local and national non-profit organisations.

• YCN seek to reduce our carbon footprint on tours by locating our tours in areas where clients can use public transport to access our services. We will reduce the use of clients’ vehicles on tours by investing in our own client transport vehicles.

• YCN work in partnership with non-profit organisations to ensure the species records obtained on our tours/workshops are shared for the benefit of wildlife.   

• YCN seek to promote partner organisation membership and sponsorship opportunities on our web site, through our e-newsletters and on our tours/workshops.

• YCN seek to promote local accommodation to our clients. We believe in supporting local small businesses through listings on our web site and recommendations to our clients on our tours/workshops

• YCN will use local guides and businesses on our tours outside of Yorkshire wherever possible to ensure local communities benefit as much as possible from our work

To help achieve this vision, we set up partnerships with local and national nature conservation organisations with a view to working alongside their ethical aims and promoting their work. We really enjoy our partnership work with non-profit organisations. Over the past five years we have been instrumental in raising over £30,000 for wildlife at home and abroad. Here are a few of the examples we are most proud of;

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT)

In 2021 YCN donated £400 to YWT to help with work on Fen Bog nature reserve. 

Kate Yates, Living Landscapes Officer YWT takes up the story; "Lots has been going on at our wonderful Fen Bog nature reserve on the North York Moors this year and the donation from Yorkshire Coast Nature helps with our funding for this work - so a big thank you to YCN and all your clients"

Read all about our flower walks in 2021 and our donation on our blog CLICK HERE

Natural England (N.E)  & YWT. The Lower Derwent Valley NNR

In January 2023 YCN made a donation of £280 for the purchase of two motus satellite tags for Jack Snipe research within the Lower Derwent Valley NNR. This site has been a regular site for us to visit on our Birdwatching for beginners classes & Birding Discover Days so its great to put something back into bird conservation on this reserve. 

"Thank you for the kind offer of funding a tag or two via the friends to support some of the more ground breaking research in the valley designed at targeting better conservation measures for our more poorly understood species". Craig Ralston Natural England 

Flamborough Bird Observatory (FBO)

In our second year 2013, YCN donated £700.00 to the building of a new bird hide at Thornwick Bay. Thornwick now has a new hide and a fantastic small nature reserve adopted by Flamborough Bird Observatory which is open to the public. In 2014 YCN Director Richard Baines raised £1,000 for the FBO Conservation fund to be spent directly on projects which will help birds at Flamborough. Richard raised the money by being sponsored to try to see as many species of birds as possible in two months September and October 2014. His final tally was 161 species! To find out more about Flamborough Bird Observatory and YCN trips to Flamborough Click Here

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Bempton Cliffs

YCN Director Steve Race makes a regular donation from his Seabird photography workshops to this reserve. In 2015 Steve donated £500 to the reserve who used the money to build a pond close to the visitor centre at Bempton. The pond is now a fantastic place for birds and amphibians. To find out more about Bempton RSPB and YCN workshops at Bempton Click Here

YCN Director Richard Baines donated £300.00 in 2012 for the reserve to buy their first moth trap. This moth trap has since been used to record many amazing moths and teach visitors about these mysterious creatures.

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Coquet Island

Every year YCN run photography trips to the Northumberland Coast. Coquet Island is an RSPB reserve one mile off Amble in Northumberland. It is home to a large colony of nesting seabirds and is specially protected under European Law for birds such as the Roseate Tern, one of our rarest nesting seabirds. Coquet now holds 90 per cent of the UK's roseate tern population.

YCN Directors Steve Race and Richard Baines have sponsored a Roseate Tern nesting box every year since 2014 donating a total of £360. These special boxes are needed so the terns can hide from predators whilst nesting. In 2015 YCN Bird Guide Mark Pearson raised £750.00 for these beautiful birds! To find out more about Roseate Terns and YCN trips to Northumberland Click Here

North Sea Wildlife Trusts (NSWT) Cetacean Recording Project

YCN are working in partnership with the NSWT to help record numbers of whales and dolphins on the Yorkshire coast. We have been running our seabird and whale trips for six years and seen many whales. We have a designated volunteer surveyor on every one of our trips and we share our photographs with the NSWT to enable individual identification of cetaceans and improve our knowledge of the amazing mammals. To find out more about the NSWT project Click Here and YCN whale watching trips Click Here

Spurn Bird Observatory Trust (SBOT)

In 2019 YCN started running birding trips to Spurn, one of the best places in the UK for wading birds and migration. YCN are very keen to help SBOT and support their work especially their land purchase fund. YCN donate £500 every year from the profits of our birding tours. £2,500 into the land purchase fund from YCN so far. To find out more about this project and YCN trips to Spurn Click Here

International Fund-Raising Work by YCN – Birdlife International

In March 2018 Richard Baines YCN Director, Jono Leadley and Mark Pearson YCN guides were part of a small team of four Yorkshire birders who raised $28,000 to fight illegal bird hunting in the Mediterranean at the iconic Champions of the Flyway event. To read how the team won the Guardians of the Flyway trophy Click Here

International Fund-Raising Work by YCN – Bhutan White-bellied Heron Project

Every year YCN run a trip to Bhutan, this amazing country full of wildlife wild places and wonderful people is home to one of the world’s rarest birds the White-bellied Heron. Our first YCN and Red Panda trip to Bhutan in February 2020 donated $500 to this project. To find out more about YCN trips to Bhutan Click Here